Current machines for producing soft serve frozen food compositions, such as soft serve ice cream and yogurt, comprise a reservoir of liquid soft serve mix connected to a cylindrical freezing barrel. Mix is either gravity fed or pumped to the freezing barrel where the mix is rapidly frozen by means of a high power refrigeration coil surrounding the freezing barrel. Liquid mix is fed into one end of the freezing barrel and out the other end to a dispensing head where the finished product is withdrawn from the machine. A motor rotates a shaft extending through the center of the barrel. A series of scrapers is mounted on the shaft. The mix in the freezing barrel closest to the interior surface of the barrel freezes and the rotating scrapers skim the frozen mix from the surface of the barrel and fold it into the warmer mix in the center of the barrel. At the same time, the mix is propelled longitudinally through the freezing barrel toward the dispensing head.
The problems with such machines are numerous. They use a large amount of electricity. The design does not efficiently utilize space inside the housing of the machine so that only two flavors typically are possible in a reasonably sized machine. The design also does not continuously produce large quantities of uniform consistency soft serve food product. It also takes a considerable period of time to recharge the machine with frozen food product during high demand periods. Furthermore, the machine must be disassembled to clean the parts in contact with food as required by health and regulatory authorities.